August 15, 2003 - 5:56 PM

My First Week (or how I learned to wait)

Sakes alive. This has been a long, exciting week for me. Oh, and before I forget, my friend Sylvie Lewis is playing a gig tomorrow (saturday) at The Hotel Cafe, which is located in Hollywood near Cahuenga and Hollywood Blvd. I'm hoping that I don't have to work so that I can go see her.

But back to this week. I'm guessing that some of you who have been reading this diary were all excited for me when I said in my last entry that I'd be working my first session as an assistant on Tuesday. Allow me to spin you the tale of what happened. Mwah ha ha ha. Um.

I went in Monday night around 8 in order to set up all the equipment. I was of course quite needlessly nervous and spent 7 hours moving keyboards around, plugging gear in, writing down where everything was being routed. It didn't help move things along that I was not aware of how the engineer wanted everything set up. Around 1 AM, a couple other co-workers and I went out for final call at a local watering hole. Even though it was karaoke night, none of us got up and sang. Uhh...maybe I shouldn't admitted that.

Tuesday, I got up around 10 AM and was about to head out when I got a call telling me that my session had been cancelled, but it might be rebooked, so I should stay by the phone. I went back to sleep (since I'd only slept 5 hours) and was woken again by a call saying that the session was back on, but for Wednesday instead. Since some of the equipment hadn't arrived on Monday, I went back in to see if it was there for me to hook up. The engineer, Brian, was hanging around, so we talked, he checked out my work, and explained how he wanted the board set up. A little rejiggering and moving around, and we were ready for the next day.

Wednesday, the start-time for the session was 2 PM, and, wanting to be an early bird, I showed up around 12:30 to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Brian arrived 15 minutes later and we ordered food. One of the great perks of being a lowly-paid assistant engineers is that we get to eat on the expense account of the artist. Good food too.

Brian started working, mixing a Ja Rule song while I calibrated the tape machine onto which he would be recording the final mix. More gear kept streaming in, so i had to hook all that stuff up too. Eventually, the producer, IG, came in and worked with Brian on the mix (IG turned the volume up to 11 and I had to put earplugs in just to keep my head from exploding). Much of the rest of my afternoon was spent sitting and watching. When the mix was finished, I operated the tape machines (we recorded to DATs as well) while Brian ran several different versions of the mix.

We took a small break for dinner (more free food!), then another producer, CS, showed up in order to create some new grooves, beats, tunes for Ja. He was the reason why I had to set up 6 different keyboards, 4 MIDI sound modules, and 4 different guitars. Then things kinda became a blur for a while. IG and CS wanted to sample and/or mimic beats from other albums, so I had to keep going out to the receptionist with lists of cds that I needed the runners to get. Also, at some point in the night, Ashanti and her mom and one of her tour musicians showed up so that she could record some vocals for a remix and backing vocals for a live show.

That made around 10 people milling around while I was running around making sure everyone was taken care of and all the equipment was properly plugged or replugged in. Eventually, they all left (I think it was maybe around midnight) except for Brian and CS. CS spent the rest of the night sampling the cds and creating his beats. Over the course of the night, Brian and I went back and forth between the studio and the lounge. CS was in his own world in the studio and there wasn't much Brian or I could do, so we just watched TV and got dinner. This went on until, oh, 11 AM or so. We recorded what CS has come up with, and finally called it a night around 12:30 PM. Yep, it was a 24 day for me. My first day.

We set an 11 PM start time for that night and all went home and collapsed in our beds. I slept for 7 hours and was back at the studio at 10 PM. Brian showed up a little later and we waited for CS. He came in around 12 and we worked. Or, more appropriately, he worked while Brian and I sat around, occasionally tweaking things. This was a shorter night, as CS wrapped up at 5 AM.

And now, Friday night, I await a call from the studio in regards to a start time. When we left, Brian wasn't sure when we were going to be called in since IG wanted to bring Ja in to do some vocals, but who knew when he'd be available. So he was going to call the studio manager when he heard from IG, and the studio was going to call me. So far, nada, and it's almost 7 PM. Ahh, the life of an assistant.

So, what have you been up to lately?

Now Listening To : Garmarna-Vengeance
Random Thought : In one 24 hour period, I earned a full week's paycheck. Overtime rocks.

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